tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

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bigfoot
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tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by bigfoot »

I am growing some Fargesia murielae from seeds, I did a separate post about questions on that. It says Fargesia murielae will grow to up to 15 feet tall. That was the tallest cold hardy clumping one I could find. Is there a taller clumping bamboo that will grow in NC Mountains which is zone 7a. Can go below zero in the winter with a good cold snap, in the last 6 years -10 is the lowest I have seen.

Looking to do some privacy screens, some I would like as tall as possible, but must be clumping bamboo. Want to block off sight from other houses so when I walk up the mountain there is no place I can really see other houses and feel real isolated. I have a done some Murray Cyprus which are doing well, but want to mix it up some.

If it can grow from seed even better, the cost to buy enough plants to cover the areas I want would in thousand plus dollar and thats for small plants. But I would like to know all my options.

Thanks Chris
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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by Tarzanus »

Fargesia robusta is the tallest one if you want to stay safe with clumping bamboos. There are several Borinda alternatives that (c)would become taller, but are marginal in 7a and would most likely suffer.
Alan_L
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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by Alan_L »

Growing from seed it will be at the very least 5 years before you have any sort of screen. You might want to consider buying some potted plants and dividing them. Depending on the size of the plants/pots you might be able to get 2-4 divisions out of each. That will give your hedge a head start over the seedlings.
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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by Cooper12 »

Tarzanus wrote:Fargesia robusta is the tallest one if you want to stay safe with clumping bamboos. There are several Borinda alternatives that (c)would become taller, but are marginal in 7a and would most likely suffer.
I keep hearing not to try robusta in 7A due to occasional cold snaps . I plan on trying it anyways .My scabrida is pretty withered but I am hopeful it comes back fine. it is containerized but it has been a mild winter.
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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by Tarzanus »

Zone 7a is supposed to be 0°F to 5°F and that's just the hardiness of Fargesia robusta. I don't know how well it handles 0F, but I'm quite sure it gets flat when there's a couple of inches of snow. If you have snow during nasty cold spells, it should be ok, if not, - 10F is too cold and it would likely get damaged. In 7a, there's not much you can pick. I would try F. robusta. One or two first, so I can further divide them if they are OK.
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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by bigfoot »

Fargesia murielae and Fargesia robusta both seem to max out around 14 or 15 feet. The Fargesia murielae says its cold hardy down to -20 that why I chose it. Give me a buffer since I have seen it below -10 on a few occasions.

My seed growing project are now up to 5 inches. I have 30 so far and hope to get at least 30 more growing soon. I need a lot of plants so seeds were the cheapest option by far. Plus I am planting them where I cannot water them, so they have to survive on their own and if my $8 seeds do not make it no big loss is my theory. We will see.
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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by johnw »

bigfoot - What was the source of the F. murielae seed? I ask as it flowered and seeded here in 1998, 1999 and 2000 & a few years earlier elsewhere. It is not expected to flower again for +/-90 years. I've heard of none flowering of late; in fact I haven't heard of any Fargesia sp. flowering since.

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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by Cooper12 »

Tarzanus wrote:Zone 7a is supposed to be 0°F to 5°F and that's just the hardiness of Fargesia robusta. I don't know how well it handles 0F, but I'm quite sure it gets flat when there's a couple of inches of snow. If you have snow during nasty cold spells, it should be ok, if not, - 10F is too cold and it would likely get damaged. In 7a, there's not much you can pick. I would try F. robusta. One or two first, so I can further divide them if they are OK.
I think part of the problem here anyways is this used to be a solid 6B then they raised the zone to 7A based on a warming earth. However they forgot to mention it to Mother Nature here. I am sure averages are going up. I saw it over the years in the milder Sierra with increased average snow levels through the years but here some of our weather comes from the north and we get inversions so every few years it can get or below zero. However I can protect the younger plantings enough I think until there more established and better suited to handle a cold spell. It snows here quite often but usually just a dusting to a few inches at a time.
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wind-borne
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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by wind-borne »

johnw wrote:bigfoot - What was the source of the F. nitida seed? I ask as it flowered and seeded here in 2008, 2009 and 2010 & a few years earlier elsewhere. It is not expected to flower again until +/-2120. A few selections bloomed slightly later but I've heard of none flowering of late; in fact I haven't heard of any Fargesia sp. flowering since.

johnw
John, i wonder if there might be other late blooming survivors of the murieliae lab blunder. Bigfoot did say was Fargesia murieliae.

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bigfoot
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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by bigfoot »

johnw wrote:bigfoot - What was the source of the F. nitida seed? I ask as it flowered and seeded here in 2008, 2009 and 2010 & a few years earlier elsewhere. It is not expected to flower again until +/-2120. A few selections bloomed slightly later but I've heard of none flowering of late; in fact I haven't heard of any Fargesia sp. flowering since.

johnw
I got Fargesia murielae seeds off of ebay, I know not reliable. But $8 and I got well over 100 seeds, and what is growing is clearly a form of bamboo. I would assume there is no way for me to tell what they really are at this stage being only a few inches tall. If there is a way I would love to know it. Now I am a little worried as to what I am growing. I would hate to plant them and have them not cold tolerant or only grow a few feet tall. The guy grows them in the high desert in Nevada seems to sell a lot of seeds.

I picked Fargesia murielae based on research on height, clumping and cold tolerance. I chose seeds after seeing how much a live plant would cost knowing I probably need 60+ plants. I knew it mentioned they flowered. I just now did a little more research based on that and it seems like you point out, they flower every 80 to 100 years and DIE after flowering. That would be a drag to get them growing have them flower and die. But 2120 I think I am OK with that.

Thanks for all the great feedback. I can't wait to get some bamboo growing in the mountains. Here in FL I have some huge seabreeze bamboo, bought them as a single twigs 5 years ago now they are 40 feet tall towers, been fun watching how big they have gotten, although the hurricanes really beat them down a couple of times now. Twice now we have evacuated to come back and have all our bushes and bamboo to be stripped of 90% of their leaves.
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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by johnw »

Tarzanus - I've edited my post. I wonder if ocimum_nate got seeds from his bizarre flowering in 2012?
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
Alan_L
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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by Alan_L »

The thing to remember about Fargesias in general is that you need to worry about the upper end of the thermometer, not just the low end. If you have hot and humid summers where it doesn't cool down very much at night, these things won't thrive.
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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by Cooper12 »

up here our summer nights are generally in the 50's and lower humidity
Jason Floyd
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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by Tarzanus »

I don't recall reading about any Fargesia flowering (except perhaps stress induced) lately. There are, however, tons of Borinda seeds still labeled as Fargesia. I will look a but further.
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Re: tallest clumping bamboo for NC Mountains zone 7A

Post by wind-borne »

Tarzanus wrote:I don't recall reading about any Fargesia flowering (except perhaps stress induced) lately.
Latest Fargesia(nitida) I saw flowering was in ’17. I had seen flowers on it in ’15 & ’16 also, big 100+ gallon display pot at local nursery. Was still alive when I last saw it before they removed.
Not sure if it was ’16 or ’17 there that I saw a couple of divisions for sale that began showing flowers. :oops:
Bamboo guy did say he had reports from customers of flowering also so wouldn’t think stress would be that widespread.
Could it be a lack of stress at either the cold or hot ends of spectrum that delayed flowering?
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